For the past few months I haven't been able to get any modeling done, but recently I had a little time and felt the need to work outdoors. I've long planned to put a small depot between the tracks at the town of Dos Manos, so I decided to do some prep work for that.

Until now, the tracks going through that area have just been on dirt, rocks and ballast. Even on the two stone bridges, there was a couple inches of soil under the tracks. I wanted to replace this with a concrete base, and also create a concrete foundation and sidewalks for the depot.

In this shot I've removed the track at the edge of the layout, dug out the ballast under it, and poured some concrete into the bridge. I used 1/4" hardware cloth to reinforce the concrete. The concrete is actually a mix of vinyl concrete patcher and high strength mortar mix:

I built up the track base, foundation, and sidewalk a little at a time, in sections. I also left a depression in the middle of the foundation -- this will be used to hold the wiring for the depot's lights. There is a 3/8" copper tube used as a conduit for the wiring. Then I marked the position of the tracks onto the concrete base, and built two forms out of foam core art board. These were positioned on the base in preparation for pouring the sidewalk:

Here's how it looked the next morning after I'd removed the forms:

Here's how it looks with some ballast added to two of the tracks. I may use a different colored ballast on the track closest to the town buildings, or I may glue on timbers between the rails, like at a grade crossing:

The depot foundation is still rough. I won't finalize it until I have designed the depot, and know exactly what the dimensions will be:

Way back when I first envisioned this depot, it would have been one of my first buildings on the layout. I used an antiquated 3D modeling program to create a couple renderings of what I had in mind:

However, at the time I decided that I should wait until had some more experience with structures, before attempting something as relatively complex as the depot. I'm glad I waited, because I know a lot more about what I'm doing now, than I did then. I will be using different materials than I had originally planned to use.

Today I put together a crude foam core mockup of the depot and placed it on the layout, to help me get a feel for how it will look and fit into the town. The center part of the building will be two stories. Both that section, and the west wing, will have peaked roofs covered with Spanish tiles. I decided to add an east wing which will be an open, shaded waiting area. This will have a flat roof supported by arches. Here are some photos from various angles: